Tuesday, April 4, 2017

People criticize other people for playing games. Of course when
sincerity is required, then playing games is a bad thing and those
people can become annoying and tedious because they seem incapable of
being serious- they do not know when or how to stop playing and
certainly game-playing then can take on a rather malicious and neurotic
aspect-- but playing games can also be good fun and provide a needed
distraction from pain and suffering so it is not always clear really
when game-playing is good or bad.
Computers that are programmed to play games can often be good company
when you need a distraction from pain even tho they are not
human--sometimes better because you know what to expect from them.

Wikipedia defines game theory as "the study of mathematical models of
conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers."
I was watching a movie about Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies last night
and the part about the trial of the Chicago Seven (originally the
Chicago Eight until Bobby Seale the Black Panther severed his trial from
that of the other defendants). At the time, I remember this rather odd
and antic trial and when it dominated the news. In the movie Vincent
D'onofrio plays Hoffman and he gives him this pretentious self-involved
quality with some fake non-localizable accent that I found annoying but
anyway, Hoffman was essentially a hyper-rational game-player--they got
that part right. That was also why I didn't take him seriously at the
time--he was an antic clown tweaking the nose of the stuffed shirt,
irrational establishment. The country was in pain at the time and needed
a distraction and he provided it. So, what is the point I am trying to
make here? There was this bizarre phenomenon last year when clowns
started spontaneously appearing. They were rather strange clowns because
it seemed they did not know how to play. They just stood there. They
were clowns who forgot how to be clowns. We are a country that has
forgotten how to be in pain. The stuffed shirts are still running the
country,--maybe we have all forgotten how to play--maybe it is time to
send in the clowns. The real ones.

About Me

Ken's articles on the revolutionary era in Hudson Valley have appeared in the OCHS Journal, Minerals Magazine and PTG Journal. His work in fiction and non-fiction focuses on the history of scientific agencies in the U.S. He continues to lecture on topics of historical interest throughout New York State.
After returning home from sea he moved to the Hudson Valley to build on on a piece of land owned by his grandfather. After planting a vineyard in he decided to try offering a few hand crafted wines to the general public. It took another seven years to get government approval but finally, in 2006 he proceeded with the tasting room project. The result was Silver Stream Winery.
His musical career has spanned forty years. After a ten year professional career in including appearances with Huey Lewis, Steve Odum, Fabian, The Platters, Robert Merrill and appearances at Lincoln Center and the Kool Jazz Festival, he currently plays bass with the New Sussex Symphony Orchestra and others.
He is working on the third in the monoville series "moon over mono." "Makers of the Telegraph" will be his first non-self-published full length non-fiction work.